Pilot plays down brush with jet

The Cessna pilot at the centre of claims of a near miss with a passenger jet north of Melbourne on Wednesday has dismissed the incident as a "storm in a teacup".

The two planes - a Virgin Blue Boeing 737 carrying more than 100 passengers and the Cessna with four people on board - came within 150 metres of each other, triggering a collision warning on the Virgin jet.

The passenger jet was flying at 18,000 feet and on descent towards Melbourne Airport, while the Cessna was flying 500 feet lower, heading in the same general direction.

The Cessna's pilot, Adelaide-based citrus grower John Knispel said too much fuss had been made over the incident.

"It's a storm in a tea cup," he said. "It didn't cause me any concern, and I didn't detect any concern in the voices of the pilots of the Virgin aircraft or the radar controller.

"One of my passengers saw the Virgin flight and she certainly wasn't screaming in panic," the 55-year-old ex-RAAF pilot said.

Mr Knispel said air traffic control gave him a new code to transmit his position prior to entering controlled airspace.

Three minutes later, the passenger jet overtook the Cessna from behind and above, at a speed of 200 knots.

The collision avoidance alarm went off in the cabin of the Virgin jet. The alarm is triggered when another aircraft is detected within 20 seconds away.

"The Virgin aircraft did pass behind and above us sufficiently close to set off the gadget," Mr Knispel said.

He said air traffic controllers had him, the Virgin jet and an Air Ambulance plane in the area on radar and in radio contact.

Air traffic control voice recordings, charts and data tapes have been impounded by safety investigators while the air traffic control regulator Air Services Australia and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have launched separate investigations.

Transport Minister John Anderson admitted the incident was one of more than 60 since new airspace rules took effect a week ago.

Under the changes, in some circumstances light aircraft can enter commercial airspace without clearance, with a greater emphasis on "see-and-avoid" procedures.

About 50 incidents were reported each week before the new airspace rules were introduced, Mr Anderson said.

But Mr Anderson's spokesman said only nine incidents were associated with airspace directly affected by the new rules.

Virgin Blue's commercial manager David Huttner said his pilots acted with the utmost professionalism, but declined to comment on the safety bureau investigations.

The air traffic controllers union and the Federal Opposition called on Mr Anderson to suspend the new airspace regime pending a safety review.

Mr Anderson said the Government would not have implemented the new system if it did not believe it was safe, but could not issue a guarantee.